Harold Corwin

IC 2137 = IC 2138. There are only two galaxies here bright enough to be seen easily at the eyepiece, NGC 1979 and the object that carries two IC numbers. Bigourdan found and measured the IC galaxy first in December of 1887. He examined it twice again, measuring it only one more time, however, on 11 February 1898.

Coincidentally, Lewis Swift discovered the galaxy a second time just three days later, but made a 10 arcmin error in the declination. His description, including the relative position of the nearby bright star and NGC 1979 is correct on that second night.

His first discovery of it had come just three months earlier in December 1897; that night, his position was closer to the truth. His description from that night, however, contains two errors. He noted the bright star -- Bigourdan's comparison star -- as preceding the galaxy instead of following, and placed the galaxy "s[outh] f[ollowing] of [NGC] 1980". This is an obvious transcription error since NGC 1980 is at -6 degrees, not -23 as is the correct object, NGC 1979.

Dreyer used Bigourdan's position and description in the second IC, combining it with Swift's first observation to form the entry for IC 2138. Swift's observation with the wrong declination became IC 2137.

― IC Notes by Harold Corwin

Drawings, descriptions, and CCD photos are copyright Andrew Cooper unless otherwise noted, no usage without permission.

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